


The Different Skies

by kitsune



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Cats, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-11
Updated: 2012-10-11
Packaged: 2017-11-16 01:56:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/534193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitsune/pseuds/kitsune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prince Soma and Agni visit their good friend Ciel. Of course they've brought a gift for the host.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Different Skies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Phoebe_Zeitgeist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoebe_Zeitgeist/gifts).



> Thanks to Phoebe_Zeitgeist who has encouraged me in this fandom and didn't mind me taking her idea and riding off in a different direction. 
> 
> The title is from _The Greater Cats_ , by Victoria Sackville-West (http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-greater-cats-2/)

The door flew open and with a joyous shout of "Ciel!" a gaily dressed whirlwind darted behind his desk and swooped him up, spinning in dizzying circles. Ciel struggled against the tight grip. "Let me go!" he demanded. 

Prince Soma paused and grinned down at him. "We've come for a visit! I knew you'd be happy to see us." From where he'd placed himself by the window, Agni put his palms together and bowed over them. "Namaste, my lord."

Ciel felt himself plucked from Soma's grasp and carefully set on his feet. Sebastian knelt in front of him for a moment, straightening Ciel's clothes and giving Ciel a moment to collect himself, before rising. "I shall bring tea and cakes immediately," he said. "Will you meet with your guests in the drawing room?"

Ciel sighed. He saw his productive day being frittered away socializing. The week as well, if they insisted upon staying. "Serve them there, Sebastian, while I finish these letters."

"No, no," Soma insisted. "It's a beautiful day, far too nice to be doing such boring things. You should be outside appreciating the sun while it shines. Besides, I have brought you a present!"

Agni strode across the room and clapped Sebastian familiarly on the shoulder. "It will be good to see Bardroy and Mey Rin and Finny again. I shall help you prepare the food, my friend." He turned Sebastian to the door and urged him through it, hand still on his shoulder. Ciel had the rare pleasure of seeing his butler taken aback, which put him in a much better mood. "The terrace, Sebastian," he called after them. He wiped his pen and sealed the ink, locking the letters in the desk drawer. Resigned, he turned and gestured politely at Soma to precede him.

As expected from two supernaturally talented butlers, by the time he and Soma reached the terrace there was a table with food, complete with crisply ironed linen, the good china, silver place settings, and even a delicate arrangement of white roses in a crystal vase. There were the promised cakes and tea, as well as some spicy savoury dishes steaming lightly in the warm afternoon air. 

Sebastian seated Ciel and poured tea for him and the prince before stepping back to await further orders. Ciel pushed his business affairs to the back of his mind and reminded himself to act hospitably. The faint scent of tobacco drifting on the air meant Bardroy was smoking outside the kitchen, no doubt grumbling about something. Mey Rin clasped her hands under her chin by the tea cart and stared dreamily at Sebastian, while Finny plucked trees from a field in the distance and stacked them along the stone wall to dry for winter fuel. Ciel undid the intricate folds in which one of the butlers had arranged the napkins and prepared to follow the social conventions that had been laboriously drilled into him.

Before he could ask any questions about their journey, Soma gestured to Agni, who disappeared around the corner of the house, then returned pushing a large box on wheels. Ciel eyed it dubiously. It was somewhat higher than his head, and perhaps three times wider than he could reach with both arms stretched out. It was also wrapped in an eye-searing shade of yellow paper.

"A small gift for the host!" declared Soma. "I have heard that English lords like to keep collections of wild animals."

With a sense of deep foreboding Ciel closed his eyes for a moment and pinched the bridge of his nose. He'd forgotten how quickly these two could give him a headache. "Prince Soma, I do not _have_ a menagerie." And with a cage that size, 'small' was a relative term.

"Oh, that will not be any problem, she's young enough to be house-trained," he said blithely, holding out his plate for Agni to heap it with pastries.

"She?"

"I don't want to spoil the surprise. She found the ship very distressing, so we had to give her all the seamen's rum to keep her quiet. I'm sure she's still asleep. You'll know when she wakes up."

A mysterious animal, noisy, seasick, and hungover. Wonderful. He'd hoped for something banal that he could pass on to the Queen with the compliments of a foreign prince. Something small and sweet and fluffy, that would look well sitting on a cushion with a satin ribbon around its neck. Or a peacock. Peacocks were easy. "And how did the seamen take the seizure of their rum?" he inquired.

Soma gestured dismissively with his fork. "It was only a small mutiny."

Ciel nodded skeptically, but since they had arrived intact with the animal in tow, obviously it had not been beyond Agni's capabilities to handle.

He indicated one of the savoury dishes to Sebastian and adjusted the napkin on his lap as he was served. Remembering the epic battle between Agni and Sebastian at the Crystal Palace, he wondered which one had the making of it in his kitchen. "What are your plans on this visit to England?" he asked warily.

"Oh," Soma said cheerfully, "we have many visits planned for education. You will hardly know we are here! We will make sure we are around enough so you don't feel that we're neglecting you, though. Becoming a gentleman is so much work!"

Ciel ate a forkful of rice to prevent any unwise comments from escaping.

A hoarse hacking sounded from behind the yellow paper. Soma brightened and grasped Ciel familiarly by the wrist, pulling him out of his seat and over to the large box. Ciel felt a dreadful premonition accompany the tickle in his throat. That didn't sound sweet natured. Or fluffy. One corner of the paper covering the box had been left unfastened, so he stood on tiptoe to reach it, and with one swipe pulled it free across the front of the box, exposing a side panel of evenly spaced iron bars. Behind them, golden eyes glowered at him from a plush black face. 

_Of course_ Prince Soma thought he needed a black panther in his house. Young, just barely out of cubhood, if her lanky limbs and oversized feet were any measure. He stepped back just as Sebastian rushed forward and dropped to his knees in front of the cage, heedless of his trousers or dignity. He reached through the bars to stroke her head, but she swiftly turned and seized the gloved hand in her jaws. A deep, gravelly rumble issued from her throat. Undaunted, Sebastian rubbed her ears with his other hand. "She flirts," he said merrily, and chucked her under the chin. Baffled, she released his hand and stumbled back a pace, snarling uncertainly to display impressively lengthy canine teeth.

Ciel returned to the table and seated himself. "Sebastian," he snapped, "my tea is cold." With a fond look at the young animal Sebastian sprang to his feet and bowed. "Please allow me to pour you a fresher cup." As he leaned over Ciel to deliver a steaming cup and remove the one only slightly less steaming, he murmured, "You do not appreciate your gift, my lord? Ah, but then, you have never truly appreciated the aesthetic perfection of felines. The slender form so graceful a hunter, the fine, sharp fangs, the deadly instincts…"

As he reached for the new cup, Ciel smiled blandly and said pointedly, "Woof". He smoothed his napkin on his lap, turned to Soma and continued politely, "I am sure she will prove to be a fascinating addition to the household."

Prince Soma had been downcast at Ciel's lack of enthusiasm. His natural exuberance now returning, he nodded eagerly. "I knew that you would never want anything so common as a peacock or a tame monkey. I told Agni that only something truly amazing would be a proper guest gift, although of course we are so close that I know I am welcome any time and the gift is only a formality. But when the villagers begged us for help from the monster that was destroying their chickens and goats, I sent Agni. In his wisdom he realized that here was the answer to two problems - your guest gift, and deliverance for the villagers. And he was happy to know that his friend Sebastian would take good care of her." 

Ciel thought wistfully of a small, beribboned monkey on a cushion, or a peacock, which could have been so painlessly added to Her Majesty's aviary. Agni was correct in one respect--he was stuck with her now. Of course he could order Sebastian to get rid of her, but he would pay the price in a series of particularly dull tutors, or suddenly over-starched collars just that little bit too snug, or business meetings that somehow turned into elaborate society events. A sulking demon could hardly be borne. Easier by far to accept, and derive some entertainment from her in other ways. "Sebastian," he called, raising his voice to be heard over the panther protesting the genial handling from the butler. "She is not to eat the other servants. Or guests. Invited guests," he amended. "Or sleep in my room."

Sebastian stopped forcing affection on the bewildered animal and rose to his feet again. "Yes, my lord." One gloved hand pressed the latch and as the door swung open, she warily skulked out. Sebastian effortlessly picked her up by the scruff of the neck and held her out at arm's length. When she snarled and swiped at him, he tapped her firmly on the nose and shook a finger at her. "No, no, you must be gracious. No doubt you are hungry, after your long trip. There are some delicious rabbits in the kitchen garden. A quick hunt, a few mouthfuls of hot blood and fur, and one's temper is much improved, I assure you." He set her down, and with a hostile glance back at him, she vanished into the shrubbery. Her progress through the grounds could be tracked by the shriek and crash of crockery as she startled Mey Rin returning with fresh tea, the blast of a flame-thrower from a surprised Bardroy, and finally a loud thunk, as Finny tucked a tree under his arm and turned around, unwittingly turning her savage pounce into a helpless somersault over the stone wall. Defeated, she slunk sulkily to the rear of the house.

Much later, when the humans had eaten their fill and were languidly sipping tea and nibbling on candied sweetmeats, the panther reappeared, stalking up the steps to the terrace and dropping a bloody bundle of fur at Ciel's feet. She cast herself down on the sun-warmed stone and stretched out with the air of one who has completed a tedious but necessary task and expects some form of material appreciation. Ciel sneezed. Soma put his plate on the ground and made a coaxing, clicking sound to summon her. She condescended to investigate, chuffing happily at the remnants of curry.

He looked at back at Ciel. "What shall you name her?" he inquired. 

Ciel looked at the disemboweled, headless rabbit corpse at his feet, at the cooling tea on the table, and over to where his butler was fussing over the beast, completely ignoring the needs of his master. Again. "Lillith," he said resignedly. "It seems appropriate."


End file.
